Posted on 08/09/2016 8:48:53 AM PDT by EinNYC
The racial wealth gap is so wide it would take black families over two centuries to catch up to white families, a jaw-dropping new study found.
Unless public policy intervenes, black households wouldn’t amass the wealth of today's white households for another 228 years, according to research from the Corporation for Enterprise Development and the Institute for Policy Studies.
The findings are part of a study, called “The Ever-Growing Gap,” that examined the accumulation of wealth over the past 30 years and how wealth-building policies have disproportionately given white, already wealthy Americans a boost.
Over the past three decades, the average wealth of white families has grown by 84%, which is a staggering three times as fast as the rate for African-American families and 1.2 times the growth rate for Latino families.
At that rate, it would take until the year 2244 for the average black family to accumulate wealth that matches what white families have today.
“Even more unfortunate, the extreme rise in overall wealth inequality over the past three decades has only served to further compound and exacerbate this racial wealth divide,” the study reads.
The authors of the study suggest that racial economic disparities go hand in hand with the social unrest in communities of color and tensions with the criminal justice system.
“In the last decade, we have seen the catastrophic economic impact of the Great Recession and an ensuing recovery that has bypassed millions of Americans, especially households of color. This period of economic turmoil has been punctuated by civil unrest throughout the country in the wake of a series of high-profile African-American deaths at the hands of police,” the study reads.
The following are some of the study’s most startling findings:
*Decades of discriminatory housing policies and market practices have resulted in homeownership among only 41% of Black families and 45% of Hispanic families compared to 71% of white families; homeownership still remains one of the greatest sources of Americans’ wealth.
*The 400 richest Americans own more wealth than the entire black population, plus one-third of the Latino population combined
*Black Americans have higher average unemployment rates, at 8.6%, than white Americans, at 4.4%
*Latino and Black families are paid up to $20,000 less on average per year than white households
*Over two-thirds of Black and Hispanic households lack the savings necessary to subsist at the poverty level for three months, compared to only one-third of white households
*Wealth returns on a four-year degree is much for valuable for white graduates than it is for black and Hispanic graduates
The group who put together the study is calling on Congress to consider policy options to help close the gap in racial economic disparity and “reduce the wealth concentration at the top.”
This includes identifying policies that perpetuate the wealth divide through a government-wide audit, fixing tax policies to ensure they help families of color build wealth, and closing federal estate-tax loopholes and creating an annual net worth tax on high-wealth individuals.
“Given the trajectory of the racial wealth divide and the future demographics of our country, failure to address this growing problem will severely impact the economic opportunity of communities of color, and it will have serious ramifications for the overall economic well-being of our nation,” the study reads.
This article is full of declarations, but it is pointing the finger of blame in the wrong direction.
It would take them 400 years to catch up to my debt!!
[Unless public policy intervenes....]
Yes, the welfare state worked so well for Black families and their upward mobility.
The liberal lunatics have gone completely insane. They’re all nuts. Most are crazier than Hillary is. Clintoon will be perfect to run the asylum.
Basically they will have to learn to smelt iron before they really develop.
You are exactly right.
The premise of this article has been debunked. By liberals!
Link is to an article that describes what happens when people are given a windfall. Basically, it does not change the trajectory of that family’s wealth.
Poor decision making skills, as you point out, are a major factor.
Black pride is a joke. Couldn’t feed themselves without white man’s money.
The only gap that matters is the “Ambition Gap”.
Dave Chappelle pretty much showed what would happen if they got Reparations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fg6J1Skptbs
Maybe because they are 12-13% of the population and of that 80% have absolutely zero interest in working and bettering themselves but have a huge interest in committing a vast majority of this nations crime...
Could that be why?
I guess someone needs ti get busy.
Sounds like they’d better get to work!
What do they mean by a black family? There seem to be fewer and fewer intact families with a working male figure. Black families seem to largely consist of baby mamas with children supported by the welfare system.
It would be pretty difficult for a white baby mama with children on welfare to get ahead, either.
This bimbo thinks these stats are bad, she should check into how bad it is for the Native Americans who also fell into the Democrat’s “We’ll take care of you if you vote for us.” trap.
“————————according to research from the Corporation for Enterprise Development and the Institute for Policy Studies. “
Stopped reading right there-————another useless organization.
.
IMO Illegitimacy is the great divider between financial success and non success. Probably single parenthood households caused by divorce are second
Illegitimacy affects more than the number of earning adults supporting a family- it contributes to realms of emotional problems and social dysfunction for the kids esp when they reach adolescence. Boys that don’t know how to respect and assert masculine confidence and authority in a constructive way. Girls looking for daddy approval and love. Problems that may affect the rest of their lives.
What to do about it? I don’t know. Poor moral behaviors or poor personal decisions are so ..... 1950’s. But at the first and least this needs to be acknowledged
and yes, I know there are exceptions to every generalization
But they don’t swing the overall trend
“Black families will need 228 years to attain wealth of white families today”
...given that schooling, working and saving are out of the question...
“Black families will need 228 years to attain wealth of white families...”
...and about thirty days to blow it all on cars, drugs, gambling, and booze.
how about they just ignore Beyonce and JayZ and instead wake up early in the morning and go to school and then after that, wake up in the morning and go to work. All the while respecting themselves and others and avoiding trouble. thats all there is to it. too much to handle?
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